ILLUSTRATOR WORKSHOP

Hello! For the workshop tomorrow instead of printing out the help sheet, I'll post it here so people can print it out when they feel the need to.


INTRODUCTION TO ILLUSTRATOR

Pen tool exercise

- Select pen tool (P)
- Use pen tool to trace images. Create curved lines by clicking and dragging.
- A quick way to undo mistakes is to use CMD-Z, using hotkeys speeds up your process substantially. To re-do CMD-SHIFT-Z.
- You can use the direct selection tool (A) to change the Anchor points and modify the shape of a path by dragging them.

Making Shapes

- Select ellipse tool (L) or rectangle tool (M)
- Hold down shift to create circle or square.
- You can create triangles by selecting the polygon tool from the sidebar (In the same location as the ellipse and rectangle tools) To choose how many sides you want your polygon to have double click and the options will come up.
- Once you have made a few shapes, go to WINDOW>PATHFINDER.
- Select a few shapes by pressing SHIFT and clicking on them.
- You can group objects by pressing CMD-G and ungroup them by pressing CMD-SHIFT-G.
- It may help to look at the layers panel on the right hand side and lock certain shapes which you do not want to change or move.
- Play around with the pathfinder features to merge shapes etc.
- Remember that you can use the direct selection tool (A) to modify your shape.
- Also you can use the pen tool to add more anchor points or subtract them depending on what you want to make.
- On the toolbox there is a feature called the warp tool (12th down from the top) if you click and hold there are many options in modifying shapes, these can create really interesting images but be wary of having too many points.

Repeating Techniques

- When you have a motif you are happy with you can do a variety of repeating methods.
- The simplest method is ALT clicking and dragging the item or selecting it and pressing CMD-C>CMD-V which copies the object and pastes it in front of the original image. Then you can drag the image along on the same line by pressing SHIFT.
- To duplicate the last action CMD-D. (Transform again tool)
- If you want to rotate your motif select (R) and ALT-CLICK where you want the point of rotation to be. This will bring up the rotation options, and choose by how many degrees you want your motif to be rotated and click COPY.
- Then CMD-D to create a full circle repeat.

As a practice to utilize these techniques, create a pattern or motif yourself and upload it on the blog!


See you tomorrow bright and early!